Guyana row over

The Guyana Cricket Board has reached a settlement with its players which ends the impasse between the board and the West Indies Players’ Association – the representative body for cricketers in the region – over the distribution of fees for the Champions League Twenty20 and issues concerning the team’s image rights for the tournament.

Guyana qualified for the Champions League by winning the Caribbean T20, but a dispute over contract negotiations between its own board and the players association raised doubts about their participation in the tournament.

The crisis grew when the Guyana board secured an injunction against the players’ association from the acting Chief Justice of the country, barring the players’ association from making alterations to the board’s contract with the tournament organisers.

The injunction and the escalating controversy prompted the intervention of the Guyanese government, leading to a settlement after a meeting between Chetram Singh, the GCB president, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the Guyana captain.

The players’ association had objected to the West Indies Cricket Board’s decision to keep a third of the participation fee – US$500,000 – claiming that “retaining such a large sum could have a direct negative impact on Guyanese cricket and its players”. It reportedly alleged the Guyana board had not responded to its proposal of distributing the remaining two-thirds.

Also, the image rights of the team members were claimed by the West Indies Players Management Company. The issue however seems to have been resolved now, allowing Guyana to concentrate on the Champions League.

“We consider this the end of any problem with contracts and are now focusing on our preparation and training camp for South Africa,” Singh said after his meeting with Sarwan.

The impasse served as a repeat of a similar breakdown in negotiations between the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and WIPA prior to the inaugural Champions League last year in India.